Echoes of the Past
by Hushed Dreamer
Summary: [Being Rewritten] As Juno prepares to unleash her wrath following Desmond's sacrifice, something that could provide hope for the future is discovered in Abstergo, however humanity's fate is already sealed. However Juno wasn't the only one planning in the shadows. As the apocalypse draws closer, the final pieces of somebody else's plan come into play and all hell breaks loose.


**A/N: **So I, like many others who have played and finished AC3, was not happy with the ending. I admit that I actually cried from how angry I was and almost immediately thought of what could have happened afterwards (which is something I'm not proud of). This idea just wouldn't leave me alone for the past few weeks and so I finally gave in yesterday. I've seen a few other fics with a similar version of my idea already so I was reluctant to start this but I need the plot bunny to just shut-up already and so here it is.

Disclaimer: Ubisoft owns everything, except for the main plot for this fic and a few characters that will show up later on.

7/15/13: To anybody who read the story while it was still a few chapters long and is confused as to why there's only one chapter now, well I'm rewriting the story. It wasn't far in the plot yet (and that plot sucked) so for now I'm rewriting it and will be posting the chapters (which are completely rewritten) sometime in September.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Abstergo**

_December 25th, 2012  
New York City_

He didn't know for how long he had been staring at the screen, the three words that had been texted to him by his wife bleeding into his mind. He had run his thumb over the touch screen so many times, had typed in and deleted his reply countless times already. William knew that she had sensed that something was wrong over the various times he had spoken on the phone with her since that day. How long had it been since the last time he heard her voice? An hour? Two maybe?

He blinked, his eyes burning from starting at the touch screen before he read the text again.

_"Is everything alright?"_

William looked away from the screen for the first time in a while and for a moment he was blinded by the imprint he had been left with from the white screen before rubbing his eyes. Standing up he threw his phone onto the leather couch he had been sitting on before bending down and taking the glass of whiskey he had poured himself earlier before strolling over to the window, glancing over at the small Christmas tree Rebecca had asked to set up the night before. The apartment they were staying at was only temporary, a place he had asked to borrow from a friend who owed him _many_ favors. Where else could they possibly stay anyway?

He took a swig of the whiskey as he stared out the window, watching as cars and pedestrians carried on with their on the streets below as snow cascaded down from the sky. He in the meantime had to deal with the guilt and the frustration following his son's death. He didn't have the heart to tell his wife that their one and only child that neither of them had seen for nine long years was dead. News didn't spread through the Brotherhood as quickly as it used to and he only hoped that she would hear the news of their son's death first. It was something that William was not looking forward to. Desmond's death was still something that he couldn't wrap his head around and he would much rather tell her face to face. It was cruel for him to keep Desmond's death a secret from her for as long as he did but what else could he do? His wife was absolutely devastated when their son ran away, having refused to sleep while they searched for their son, she refused to eat, and ultimately their relationship had become strained as a result.

He didn't even want to imagine her reaction when she'd find out that he couldn't even retrieve their son's body from the Temple. How could he? The Templars swarmed the place shortly after he left the vault with Shaun and Rebecca, and as far as he knew they probably took the body for themselves already which frustrated him. He couldn't just break into Abstergo and take the body. There weren't enough men and resources for that at the moment. Fortunately though Abstergo wasn't out looking for them. They were much too busy feeding bullshit to news agencies with their 'experts' explain that all the aurora's, earthquakes, and other natural disasters taking place all over the globe was due to global warming and having to explain what purpose the satellite they sent up into orbit was for. A satellite that failed to work.

William lowered the cup down as the floor began shaking below him, and took deep breaths as the windows shook and everything rattled around him. Yet another earthquake. He watched as the people in the streets scattered into stores, held onto light posts, or just ran down the street. When the shaking finally stopped he let out a breath and turned around to make his way back to the couch. Earthquakes _were_ unnerving but after days of the ground spontaneously shaking he had gotten somewhat used to them.

When he got back to the couch he found the phone vibrating against the cushion, the screen lit up as _Samantha Miles _appeared on the screen. Reluctantly, he unlocked the lock screen and quickly checked his messages before reading the one he just received.

_"How is he?"_

Clenching his teeth together he gripped the glass and his phone tightly in his hands before plopping down on the couch and without much thought he threw the glass of whiskey onto the floor, watching as the cup shattered and the liquid spilled out. _What _could he tell her? It wasn't a simple matter to just text her what had happened at the Temple. He didn't care if Shaun or Rebecca or the both of them went out to the living room to check out what all the noise was. He just didn't _care. _They would just continue on with their pity and tell him that it wasn't his fault when it was. He had blown his second chance with his son.

When had there ever been more than two chances in life anyway? Taking deep breaths he looked back up and glanced out the window as he heard one of the doors opening down the hall. One of the two finally cared enough to go check out what was wrong with him it seemed. Still gripping the phone tightly in his hand he combed back his hair with his other hand and exhaled. Not only had he lost his second chance to actually have a positive relationship with his son but once he broke the news to his wife he would have lost his second chance to reconcile with her.

He longed for a third chance at everything but what were the odds of _that_ happening?

* * *

_December 27th, 2012  
Rome, New York_

He was the only one waiting for the elevator, anxiously watching as the red number on the screen above the elevator doors slowly changed from twelve to eleven and so on. He wasn't a patient person, never really was and so while he waited he began tapping his foot, glancing down at the new leather shoes he had bought recently even though he hated them before admiring how spotless the tiled floors were, enough that he could see his own reflection: a young man with dark, un-kept hair and blue eyes stared back at him looking rather annoyed. Turning his attention back to the elevator he glanced up at the screen again before letting out a sigh of relief. The elevator only had to go down two more floors and he could finally be on his merry way to that depressing department he had been promoted to a few weeks ago.

He didn't even want to work in the Lineage Discovery and Acquisition Department because it was honestly the worst job he had ever been hired for regardless of how well it paid. Working in such a department would be a dream come true for any genealogists who were extremely interested in genetic memory. But working for such a department of a highly acclaimed company like Abstergo wasn't exactly his idea of an ideal job. He had to help extract people's memories; the memories of his allies and those unlucky souls who had no clue that within their veins was Assassin blood, and doing such a thing just left him feeling extremely guilty and disgusted with himself. He didn't quit because it took a whole lot of convincing during his job interview to get them to hire him, and they only did so because they were in need of more genealogists and he played the part of the desperate man who wasn't able to find work after graduating with a certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. That was a lie.

He could have found work anywhere else but he only needed to work at Abstergo to be able to infiltrate their system. So far he wasn't successful, but there was no doubt in his mind that if they knew the real reason as to why he applied for the job that there wouldn't be any hesitation to kill him and how was he to defend himself? He only had the most basic training while the Abstergo security guards were like mercenaries compared to him, and he knew that they would squish him like a bug given the chance. So now he was stuck with working at one of Abstergo's many facilities, more specifically their facility right outside of Rome, New York.

Finally the number on the screen reached the number seven, the floor he was on, and the chrome doors slid open revealing a man about a few years older standing in the elevator and looking quite disgruntled.

"You're the new guy from the Lineage department I met the other day…what's your name again?" the man asked as Marcus stepped into the elevator and pushed the number three on the control panel before standing next to the man.

"Marcus."

"Marcus what? Marcus Apples, Marcus Walnut…Marcus…?"

"Alfaro." he answered in annoyance, the man reminding him of how his elementary school teachers used to do just that whenever he forgot to sign his full name on assignment sheets and he _hated _that.

"Right, Alfaro." the man repeated, trying the name out as the doors closed. "We weren't able to introduce ourselves during that last team meeting about our productivity. The name's Robert." the man introduced himself. He didn't offer Marcus his hand to shake or anything like that, instead he kept his hands behind his back not that Marcus cared but it irked him that Robert didn't even offer his last name after forcing his own out.

Once the elevator descended down onto the fourth floor the doors slide open and Robert filed about, but turned to look at Marcus.

"Hey, why don't you take a walk with me? I have to go take care of something and I'd like to get to know you better too. You've been working here since September and you haven't even made an effort to get to know anybody."

Marcus stared at the man, slightly surprised at his offer and though he would have declined he accepted. Why did he accept? He didn't know. But it was nice to at least get to know some people while he was confined to that hell hole of a place.

"Sure…." he agreed hesitantly, stopping the doors just as they began closing by pushing them away from him as he stepped out into the hall next to Robert who turned and began walking down the hall. Honestly, Marcus didn't know if he should even be delaying his return to the department, but what did he care? He hated working there and he was willing to delay returning to work.

"It's been crazy the past few days, hasn't it?" Robert commented in his attempt to start up a conversation.

"What? The auroras?"

"And the earthquakes, and the erupting volcanoes…. The Mayans said the world was going to end on December twenty-first, they didn't say anything about the Earth turning into a giant disco ball. To think that I believed we were going to fiery death…heh…disco ball." Robert grinned, evidently finding his own joke funny but Marcus wasn't exactly laughing. He only smiled and nodded politely, looking away as he rolled his eyes so Robert wouldn't see.

He looked back just as Robert ran his fingers through his sandy hair, and just as the man did so he was able to catch a glimpse of a ring with the Templar seal on it. Templar. Robert was a Templar, not that that surprised Marcus much since most everybody in Abstergo was a Templar anyway, and he…well he was probably the only Assassin infiltrating one of Abstergo's branches at the moment. So Robert probably knew more than Marcus thought he did, and he in turn possibly knew a little more than Robert did. He didn't know if Desmond Miles' death had reached Templar ears already, the man had only died six days earlier, and last he checked Abstergo was desperately looking for him. Desmond's death was a huge blow to the Assassins especially after all that work he did in the Animus to become the Ultimate Assassin only to die by touching some ball. It was great that he saved millions of lives that day, but now the Assassins had to deal with Juno. From what he gathered William was at a loss of what to do, but had instructed him to continue what he was doing and as for Desmond's mother…the poor woman. That wasn't exactly the news a mother would want to hear on Christmas.

"You're probably wondering where we're going, am I right?" Robert's voice cut through his thoughts and Marcus realized that he didn't know where Robert was leading him.

"Yeah,"

"Thought so…I have to go to the Day Care Center and pick up some brat to take him to the Lineage Department. You've probably seen the little snot taken over there from time to time. The kid's basically an orphan, his mother died from some freak accident and the boss decided to raise the kid here after nobody from his mother's family came to claim him. But I don't have time to take him over there, I have to go to a very important meeting right now and you work in the Lineage Department. The kid is headed over there so why don't you do me a favor and pick him up and take him with you. Thanks, I owe you one."

Before Marcus could protest Robert had already turned around and disappeared around a corner, leaving him standing in the middle of the hall alone. He didn't need to know Robert well to know that he was an asshole. Marcus huffed in irritation and began making his way to the Day Care Center on the other side of that floor. As he made his way over there he couldn't help but think about how sad it must be to grow-up in a place like this, such as the kid he now had to go pick-up was. But he also couldn't help but think of his now-assumed deceased friend and her unborn baby.

He was at Abstergo for two reasons: the first one was to infiltrate their system, though originally it was to find a way to stop the Satellite launch but now he had to find out what it was the Templars were planning net and he was close to that, very close; second, he was taking the opportunity to find out what happened to his friend, a woman who usually went by her preferred nickname of Dani, having hated her first name and often used her middle name instead. He tried searching anything during his time there on an Evelia Danielle Lucas, but usually came up with nothing. He only knew that she had gone for a job interview at that very same facility while she was six months pregnant and disappeared shortly after her interview.

He along with her other friends worried for her; she had no family other than her father who basically disowned her after she became pregnant out of wedlock, angered by the fact that she had conceived after a one-night stand with somebody in the city of New York. It was only weeks before graduation that she had gone up to the city for spring break and met some man who worked at a bar…or was it a restaurant? No, it was a night club…strip club? Wait, what was he thinking? The point was that she had gotten pregnant and tried contacting the guy who got her pregnant but was never able to reach him, and she decided to keep the baby.

Before her disappearance she happily announced that she was having a baby boy and that was the last anybody heard of her. So when he joined the Assassins the beginning of two-thousand and twelve and later assigned to infiltrate the Rome, New York facility he was glad. Maybe he would finally find out what happened to Dani two years after she went missing. There was no doubt in his mind that Abstergo had to do with her disappearance.

Breaking away from his thoughts, Marcus realized that he was standing in front of the double doors of the Day Care Center. He hesitantly stepped inside only for his ears to be assaulted by the screaming and laughter of children, and a few cries here and there. Children ranging from ages one to four ran through the large pastel colored room.

Legos, dolls, toy cars, and a wide variety of other toys littered the floor; there were a few round tables with children sitting at them and coloring, others were painting with paint in the corner with large smocks covering their clothes. It was like being in pre-kindergarten all over again. This was where the parents working at the facility left their children while they worked and those parents must feel relieved knowing that they don't have to spend a crazy amount of money on child care, and that their children were close by.

"Can I help you?"

Marcus jumped up, startled, and turned around to see a woman with curly blonde hair and green eyes smiling at him.

"Uh…yeah. I'm here to pick-up of these kids to take him or her to the Lineage Department." he replied, realizing that Robert neglected to tell him if the kid was a boy or a girl nor how old he or she was. The woman seemed confused for a second before realization dawned on her.

"Oh, right. Of course." she frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. "You're new, aren't you? I haven't seen you around before."

"I'm not sure if I'm still considered new."

"Well, then welcome to the Abstergo family on my part…." the woman trailed off and glanced over her shoulder to look at the children behind her. "You know, I don't exactly agree with what's being done on Alec but what the boss decided to do with him is beyond my control, not much I can do so I just listen to orders." the woman sighed and turned around, her frown turned into a smile when her eyes landed on a toddler, about the age of two with unruly dark hair playing with blocks and toy cars.

"Alec come here!" she called out and the child looked up from the toys, stood up and ran over cheerfully to the woman, wrapping his arms around one of her legs and smiling up at her.

"Yes?"

"This man is going to take you to the nice doctors," the woman explained, but upon mentioning doctors the boy's smile turned into a frown and he hid behind the caretaker, shaking his head.

"No!" he cried before sticking his tongue out. The woman sighed in exasperation before Marcus knelt down as best as he could to the boy's level and smiled at him.

"Sorry, he's a handful."

"How old is he?" Marcus looked up at the woman as she placed a hand on Alec's head.

"He turned two on December fifteenth." she answered. Marcus turned his attention back to Alec. Two years old and he was already being sent to the Lineage Department, and that thought alone horrified him. To try to drive a mind as young as his into insanity by shoving him into an Animus at his age had to be a crime.

"Sweetie, you're off to see Gracie. She's going to give you a check-up. You like Gracie." the woman tried but the toddler shook his head and buried his face into the crook of the woman's leg.

"What if I give you candy?" Marcus offered, and at that the boy looked up at Marcus and eyed him curiously.

"Candy?" he repeated, pushing away from the caretaker and hesitantly walking over to Marcus. Now he had a good look of the toddler, Alec's gray eyes reminding him of Dani's who too had such an eye color.

"Don't lie to him, he trusts just about anyone." the woman chastised when Marcus picked him up and stood up.

"I'm not lying." Marcus smiled and the woman smiled back at him.

"Can I depend on you to stand-up for him once in a while? I'm sure that if his mother were still alive she would never agree to her son being used like a lab rat." she eyed Marcus who nodded and observed as Alec began sucking his thumb and rubbing the lobe of his ear.

"Sure."

"Good."

"What of his father?" he didn't even realize he had asked that until the woman's expression darkened a little. "He's an orphan. His mother died at child birth and his father never stepped up to claim him."

"Oh…."

"If you run into any trouble with him just call for me. My name is Mable by the way."

"Thanks Mable, I'll keep that in mind."

Mable perked up a little before waving at Alec who let go of his ear and waved back. "Bye dear, I'll see you later."

* * *

The doctor's office was located on the third floor, not far from the Animi room; the walls were a dull gray as was most everything in the room save for the tile floor. A steel desk littered with folders and documents was stationed on the far side of the room along with a laptop closed on top of all the clutter. There was a counter complete with sink; The office was located near the Animi room; the walls were a dull gray color as was most everything in the room save for the tile floor. A desk littered with folders and documents was stationed on the far side of the room along with a laptop closed on top of all the clutter. There was a counter complete with sink; various items usually found in doctor's offices were organized on top of it. And against the wall adjacent to the door was the examination table where Alec had laid down and begun crying half-way during his examination, kicking his legs in an attempt to keep the doctor from doing her job.

"Come on! I don't have time for this! Marcus will you calm him down? Keep him from squirming around too much." Gracie asked as she watched the kid squirm around.

Marcus, who had been waiting for the examination to end from where he stood near the door, looked up at Gracie who was trying to pick Alec up but the toddler only screamed louder and flailed his arms around to keep her from touching him. He walked over to the examination table just as Alec sat up and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. The two year old looked up at Marcus before crawling over to him and wrapping his arms around the man's arm. The man couldn't help but feel bad for the kid, so he shook him off and picked him up and held him against his chest. Alec calmed down after a while as he buried his face into Marcus' shoulder, taking in sharp inhales of breath every once in a while.

"How come I've never seen this kid around here before? Robert said that he comes to the Lineage Department often." Marcus asked Gracie who moved in to finish her examination now that the two year old was calm.

"He's been around here often, yeah. I'm his pediatrician, the one who rules out if he's healthy or not mostly so a few of his memories can be harvested." Gracie replied, glancing up at Marcus just as his brows furrowed.

Gracie told him anything, believing that now that he had been promoted to the Lineage Department and that he knew what the Department was all about that there was no need for secrecy. She never kept secrets from him to his knowledge, not like the others who would always vaguely answer his questions. Hell, he was one of the genealogists, why would they keep secrets from him? So after a while Gracie had become his go-to girl whenever he had a question, and she was always happy to answer them. Besides, her office was one of the few who didn't have cameras.

"His memories are harvested?"

"You should see how he reacts whenever he seems the Animus."

"But why are his memories extracted? He's only two years old."

"These bastards wanted to begin right after he was born, right after they ripped him from his mother's arms."

"What?" Marcus voiced his confusion as Gracie finally finished her examination and began putting the instruments away.

"I'm not allowed to tell anybody what happened to his mother under a sort of pact everybody has, but screw the pact. I don't like to sugarcoat the truth. Alec is an orphan yes, and he had a mother who did die after child birth. He was ripped from his mother's arms right after he was born. His mother only had the luxury of naming him and holding him for the first and last time before her death. They wanted to extract some of his memories immediately after he was born, but I convinced them to wait at least a year…_then _they began harvested his memories. "Gracie looked up and sighed, scratching her head.

"I'm still trying to convince them to just get a sample of his DNA and be done with it."

"Why wouldn't they agree to that?"

"They're all idiots." Gracie rolled her eyes. "But that first collection of memories didn't satisfy them, it was of some Syrian Assassin running around with some woman named Maria during the Third Crusade. I made them wait again up until four months ago and they harvested his memories again, and this time they came up with a collection of memories of some Assassin during eighteenth century New Orleans. It was only two weeks ago that they extracted his memories again _without _my consent this time and they found something. Now they want to shove him back in the Animus again. I'm afraid for this boy's mental health if this becomes a regular thing. I told them to wait a few years but they never listen to me. I have no clue what is in his DNA that interested the boss so much, but it must have been something interesting."

Marcus glanced at Alec who was now sucking his thumb again and had fallen asleep in his arms. Gracie smiled sadly before turning for the door. "I have to run down to the lab to get his vaccines, he's due for a few vaccinations today."

"I'll wait here then…."

"Obviously." Gracie snorted before she left the room, leaving Marcus alone with Alec.

He stepped away from the examination table and walked over to Gracie's desk, shoving a few documents out of the way to see what Gracie had laying on her desk before a manila folder with a red tab resting on her laptop caught his eye. He reached over and picked up the folder, reading the name on the tab: _Alec Lucas. _So it was the kid's file…Lucas. Well wasn't that a coincidence? Dani's last name was Lucas. Curiously, he opened the folder to see a few documents detailing the boy's medical history so far paper clipped to the inside of the folder. Marcus skimmed through the front page and stopped when he saw a familiar name under where Alec's mother was listed: _Evelia D. Lucas. _

He felt his face go pale. Evelia…so Alec was the baby she had conceived after that one-night stand in New York City. He was relieved in a way to know that her son was safe for now, but also confused. What happened to her exactly? Without thinking, he looked over to where Alec's father was listed and felt his face grow paler when he saw the name on the file: _Desmond Miles. _No, that wasn't right…it couldn't possibly be the man that died six days earlier but who else did he 'know' named Desmond Miles?

William _needed _to know about this. He took his cell phone out of his pocket and took a picture of the document before sifting through his contacts until he found William's number and sent the picture, turning off his phone when he heard the clicking of heels down hall getting closer and closer to the room. He put his phone away and closed the folder, putting it back to its proper place just seconds before Gracie walked back into the room with three syringes in hand.

"Let's get this over with," she huffed, gesturing to the examination table. Marcus walked over to the table and sat Alec down, the toddler whining in annoyance at having been woken up from his nap. The man then took a good look at Gracie, wondering if she knew anything about what happened to Dani.

* * *

Alec had stopped crying as soon as Marcus had given him candy as promised. The little boy didn't utter a word on their way back to the Day Care Center; content with trying to finish the watermelon Blow-Pop he had been given. When the elevator doors opened upon reaching the fourth floor, Marcus stepped out with Alec in his arms and placed him down and as soon as he did the toddler immediately wandered away from the man.

Marcus wondered if William even received the picture, but didn't worry about the message having been intercepted or tracked down—his phone was rigged so that Abstergo wouldn't be able to track down any calls or messages he sent or received. He watched as Alec ran up and down the hall, squealing when Marcus picked him up and held him. When his phone began to vibrate not long after, he shifted Alec under his arm and held him in place before reaching into his pocket and looked down to the screen, oddly relived when he saw who was calling him. He answered the call, ignoring Alec as he began wriggling around in an attempt to free himself from Marcus' hold.

"Hello?"

"This has to be your idea of a joke." William said gruffly on the other end. The man didn't sound happy at all, not that he ever did anyway. "I'm not in the mood for pranks."

"I'm guessing you got the message…" Marcus sighed, finally giving in and letting Alec down and watched as the child ran up the hall again with lollipop in hand. "I'm not kidding. I found the file in the doctor's office during the kid's examination."

"I would like to say that I'm going to need a bit more proof than some picture of a document you found at the doctor's office.

"Jeez boss, I just thought you would be happy to know that you have a grandson."

"I didn't say how I felt about the matter, or that I doubt that the information on that file is true."

"So…do I just leave things as they are now or…?"

"Yes, watch over him for now and keep doing your job. I'll contact you with any other instructions."

"Alright…." as soon as Marcus said that William hung up.

He looked down at his phone, frowning a little before looking back up to see Alec running back to him, Blow-Pop in hand. He soon regretted giving Alec the candy as he watched the kid stop in the middle of the hallway and let out all the contents in his stomach onto the floor before crying loudly afterwards.

"Shit!" Marcus slapped his hand onto his face and tilted his head up.

Well who was going to clean _that _up?

* * *

_**Edited: 7/15/13**_

Changes made: The prologue and first chapter were combined, and the first part of the chapter with William (which used to be the prologue) was completely redone. I like it better than what I had before.


End file.
